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Anne and David were long gone by the time we got up. We got the instructions for closing up and taking care of the dog from them last night. Dana tried to take the dog for a walk, but he was having none of it. We made our breakfast and tried to make friends, but he was very recalcitrant. I pumped all the tires up with David’s real pump and off we went toward our next destination, a hotel/campground in Koorawatha.
It was a pretty hot day and we took the back road out of Coota-bloody-mundra heading north and then northeast. We lunched at Young — first Woolworths for a coke and some lunch supplies, then a park where we used the ubiquitous public restrooms, and then to Aldi’s to get supplies for camping since there were any stores where we were heading.
At mile 64, we made Koorawatha in the late afternoon. There was supposed to be camping, but we couldn’t find it, or anyone to ask. There was a hotel which Booking.com said was open, but it wasn’t. Called the # on the wall with Google Voice which was a big bust — no one answered, and while I could’ve left a message, even big hotels don’t want to make an international call to return yours. Not everyone has WhatsApp, and this place didn’t — I tried. As we were sitting there wondering what to do, a work crew of six in two Utes came to get beers at the hotel bar. I told them it was closed and they took off for Cowra, 17 miles away. Easy for them in vehicles. Probably an hour to an hour 15 for us. Took about 5 minutes to make that decision even though it would make for an 80 mile day. It was mostly flat, and we could make it by dark, so we took off.
Flat is my groove, and I was, for once, ahead and the first to get to the town. As it was almost dark and there weren’t any indication of campgrounds nearby, I started scoping out hotels. I first landed at the Cowra Hotel, which was pretty much a 1-star. Shared bath, small rooms on the 2nd floor. They did have a bar and I bought a couple of cans as Dana was close on my heels. When she got there, we downed the beers, had a chat with a young girl on a e-scooter who was visiting her dad (who could apparently only afford the 1-star place). She was quite amazed that we rode that far. I made a reservation with Booking.com at the Townhouse motel; much better ratings and just up the street. Dana found a bar/restaurant right across the street from there. I checked in, only to find the reservation never went through, a first, and ended up just getting the room anyway (without the booking.com discounts!).
Our room was just a shade above the Cowra Hotel’s offerings, but it was clean, cool, and we were tired after the long day. We had a couple of beers at the Imperial Hotel where we found a book on Aussie Slang. Perfect entertainment while we drank our beers. We tried to find it on Amazon, but it was out-of-print, so we just took some pics, included for your reading pleasure below. Back at our hotel, we made dinner with our camping food, and settled in for a needed rest.
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